BT workers have overwhelmingly voted to strike in pay dispute, the Communication Workers Union announced.

BT has a number of bases in the East Lancashire area including a communications tower in Blackburn and a customer contact centre in Accrington.

General secretary Dave Ward said BT was facing the first national strike since the company was privatised in the 1980s.

Mr Ward said it was the first time a group of call centre workers had voted for industrial action.

A vote by CWU members at EE failed by a few votes to reach the legal threshold.

Mr Ward said he expected BT to offer a “significantly improved” pay rise by next week or strike dates will be set.

BT said it had awarded a £1,500 consolidated pay increase to 58,000 employees, effective from April, including engineers, contact centre and retail staff.

The company said this represented an increase of up to 8% per cent for some workers and more than 3 per cent for the highest paid frontline workers.

More to come…